Blog & Food Journal

My mother called me this past weekend because she ran across an ad in her local paper that caught her eye.  It was a full page ad with the title "RAISE YOUR HAND FOR CHOCOLATE MILK!".  It seems that some schools across the nation are looking to remove chocolate milk from their cafeterias.  There is a website connected to this ad: 
http://www.raiseyourhand4milk.com/

The website is hilarious!  It gives five reasons why chocolate milk matters.  The fifth reason is my favorite:

LOWFAT CHOCOLATE MILK is the most popular milk choice in schools and kids drink less milk (and get fewer nutrients) if it's taken away.

In other words- if you take away chocolate milk...the milk industry will lose a lot of money!  That is why the National Dairy Council is sponsoring this campaign.  We see this everywhere...the companies that profit from our food choices are the ones telling us what to eat- or in this case...what to drink.

I think it is funny that they want us to believe that if you take away chocolate milk- our children will get fewer nutrients.  I can think of many other food choices that could replace the chocolate milk and give ten times the nutrients.  (Vegetables, Beans, Nuts & Seeds all provide the calcium and magnesium found in milk and these nutrients are absorbed at much higher levels- and these foods are not disease causing!)

The website even has a video with nutritionists and celebrities "raising their hands" for chocolate milk.  It also provides beautiful posters for schools to download to help promote this cause. (Great more milk sponsored posters in our school system).  You can even sign a petition- saying that you want to "raise your hand".

Do moms across this nation really believe this?

Sure the MILK INDUSTRY has experts on their site giving their opinions...just like I have experts on my side of the health spectrum giving their opinions.  But logically- can we as mothers truly believe that our children need chocolate milk to be healthy?  I hope we are smarter than that- I hope mother's start questioning MILK.  I hope it does get removed from the schools.  I hope mothers realize that these "experts" are all linked to the industry.  I hope mothers realize that the science is there- a whole food plant based diet containing nutrient dense foods is the key to health.  This science is not hard to find- you just have to make the effort to look for it :)